Another mother's milk

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the tainted milk crisis in China has led to a resurgence in the demand for a seemingly antiquated practice: hiring a wet nurse.

The industrial chemical melamine discovered in baby formula and cow's milk has sickened thousands and has made some parents desperate for someone to breast-feed their babies.

The crisis is exacerbated by the fact that breastfeeding rates have been dropping in China, particularly among poor families, while commercial formula has been heavily marketed, the article said.

The practice of buying and selling human milk is something you rarely hear about in the United States, but it does happen. An Iowa woman took out an ad in 2007 offering to sell her surplus frozen milk for $200. (Her baby refused to take it in a bottle.)

Informal donation is much more common, especially in the Portland area. Babies need extra breast milk for a variety of reasons, including formula allergies, adoption, mother's low milk supply, or a mom on chemotherapy.

Sisters Jade Wieting and Michelle Fortner, both of Northeast Portland, had their babies six weeks apart earlier this summer. Fortner had previously had breast reduction surgery and worried that she might not be able to breastfeed.

"We used to joke about 'Well, maybe I'll just be your wet nurse,'" Wieting said.

But then it actually happened -- sort of.

Fortner isn't producing enough milk for her two-month-old daughter, Claire. So several times a week, after Wieting feeds her 13-week-old son, Saul, she pumps extra milk and passes along 4-6 ounces to her younger sister's two-month-old, Claire.

"It's just made it so we don't have to use as much formula," Fortner said, as well as giving her baby the health benefits of breast milk.

Fortner said she's also gotten a milk offer from a stranger, but she wasn't quite comfortable with it.

Do you have experience donating or receiving breast milk? How did it work out?